This disclosure relates generally to a gas turbine engine, and more particularly to a component that can be incorporated into a gas turbine engine. The component includes a cooling channel for cooling a platform of the component.
Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor section, a combustor section and a turbine section. During operation, air is pressurized in the compressor section and is mixed with fuel and burned in the combustor section to generate hot combustion gases. The hot combustion gases are communicated through the turbine section, which extracts energy from the hot combustion gases to power the compressor section and other gas turbine engine loads.
Both the compressor and turbine sections of a gas turbine engine may include alternating rows of rotating blades and stationary vanes that extend into the core flow path of the gas turbine engine. For example, in the turbine section, turbine blades rotate and extract energy from the hot combustion gases that are communicated along the core flow path of the gas turbine engine. The turbine vanes prepare the airflow for the next set of blades. Turbine blades and vanes are examples of components that may need to be cooled via a dedicated source of cooling air in order to withstand the relatively high temperatures of the hot combustion gases that are communicated along the core flow path.